Defending snow champs Syracuse, NY has once again won the New York State Golden Snowball contest for the 2015-2016 snow season. Congrats to Syracuse. That’s all I have to say, really. Pretty much like the snow season was for most of New York, boring, that’s my post. I’M JOKING 😉
I’m looking back to when this snow season started up and the first post or snow update I did was on 10/19/2015. I’m guessing that was the first measurable snowfall this season but don’t hold me to it. It could have been the first time I looked. That update I showed Syracuse receiving 0.4 inches of snow and Binghamton receiving 0.3 inches.
The first lead change I’m showing was around 11/15 when Binghamton took the lead ousting Syracuse with just a tenth of an inch of snow at 0.5 inches. The next lead change was around 11/23/2015 when Binghamton, NY took the lead with an inch of snow. Rochester took the lead when the next report came out from the National Weather Service the next day with 1.2 inches.
The next lead change was around 12/20/2015 if my stats are right and it was Binghamton taking the lead with just 2.0 inches of snow on the season. I had to do a double look as I’m typing this to make sure I didn’t leave out a zero somewhere. That just goes to show you how boring this season was 🙁
Rochester took over the lead again on or around 12/28 with 3.2 inches of snow. I’m not making this stuff up folks, talk about a wimpy snow season. No wonder none of the New York cities won the National snow contest at the Golden Snow Globe website 🙁 Syracuse finally took back the lead on or around New Years Day with 4.4 inches only to give it up to Buffalo around 1/12 which had 7.9 inches. So as of January 12th, 2016 Buffalo had a whopping 7.9 inches of snow. Really! Lead changes so far are at 7 I believe 😉
OK, on or around 1/13 things started getting real, lol. Syracuse retook the lead picking up over a foot of snow and their totals jumped all the way up to 22.0 inches. Obviously the best snowfall for any of the cities to date. Buffalo also piled up some decent snow and their snow totals were at 15.3. The next 10 to 15 days pretty much made the season. Between January 13th and January 25th Syracuse was able to pile up around a 15 inch lead over Buffalo. Rochester was also adding to their snow totals but was in 3rd place as of 1/25.
Right around 2/15 – 2/16 Rochester was able to cash in on some really decent snow to slip past Buffalo to grab the number 2 spot on the snow hill. I’m thinking about 18 inches of snow. Buffalo was able to melt away an inch at a time off of Rochester’s 2nd place spot but just couldn’t get enough. I think the race for 2nd place this season was more exciting that the race for the trophy. Syracuse never looked back after taking the lead on or around the 13th of January.
April turned out to be a little surprising and actually being more exciting than November or December was. Go figure that one out. OK, I’m sure it has a lot to do with El’Nino. Speaking of El’Nino there is one thing I did learn this season. My snow dances don’t stand a chance against El’Nino 🙁 Not going to happen 😉
Food for thought – This is the 2nd lowest snow total that a winning city has had since I started keeping snow stats for the Golden Snowball contest which was back in the 2002-2003 snow season. The only other time that the snow totals were lower was in the 2011-2012 snow season. Rochester, New York won that season with 58.9 inches of snow beating out Syracuse’s 50.6 inches of snowfall on the season.
I believe the 2002-203 season was the first season that the Golden Snowball contest was resurrected since the late 1990’s. The snow contest started sometime back in the 1970’s and then had a pause when the National Weather Service in Rochester shut down. Looking back this season has to be one of the lowest snow totals that a winning city has had. You all can figure that out by checking out the snow stats that date back to the 1940-1941 snow season at http://goldensnowball.com/past-snow-seasons-champs/ . Notice that Syracuse wasn’t even listed until the 1951-51 season.
Congrats again Syracuse and have an AWESOME, SAFE Summer everyone 😉
